Rosemary Potato Bread or Chive and Potato Bread: your choice

 One of my favourite loaves of bread is Potato Rosemary. Sometimes it is the same recipe using chives in place of rosemary. This bread does require a bit of planning because it uses a preferment called Biga. Basically, a type of dough made ahead of time to enhance flavours of the main dough. Preferments include biga, poolish and the infamous sourdough or levain. 

I am a lazy bread baker and although I love the flavours sourdough evokes I don't love taking care of it. Biga and poolish are shorter-term preferments. I consider the comparison of the preferments similar to a house guest who you love to come and visit, entertain and enjoy each other's company. If they stay too long it begins to get uncomfortable. You still need to get on with day-to-day living. You still love your company, you just don't have the energy to continue entertaining after a couple of weeks. That is how I feel about sourdough, love it but run out of energy with the upkeep. 

A great explanation of how to use preferments is found on this website, https://biancolievito.com/biga-poolish/  if you wish to learn more.

For this bread make the Biga a day or two ahead of time and store it in your fridge. Then you will need to take it out an hour or two ahead of time to allow it to warm to room temperature.

Biga                       Full or half recipe provided below

Ingredients                                        Metric                                  Imperial

                                                            full / half                                full / half

Bread flour                                        380 g / 190 g                        3 cups / 1 ½ cup

Instant Yeast                                      2 g / 1g                                 1 tsp / ½ tsp

Water (room temp)                            255 g / 127 g                      1 cup plus 1 tsp / ½ cup 

1.       Mix well the flour and yeast.

2.       Add the room temperature water and mix together. Adjust water and flour to make somewhat of a sticky dough.

3.       Knead the dough for 4-5 minutes until your dough is smooth.

4.       Place in a well oiled bowl and cover for about 2 hours.

5.       Remove your dough and punch down. Knead another 2 minutes then place back in the bowl. Put the Biga in the fridge to use the next day. Biga can remain in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.

Now you can get off and do what you have to do or even pre-prep your dry ingredients for the potato bread. 

Potato and Chive Bread Or Potato and Rosemary Bread

Ingredients                                                Metric                                Imperial

Biga                                        Half recipe from the Biga dough

Bread flour                                                  595 g                        4 ½ cups + 4 Tbsp

Salt                                                               16 g                         1 ¾ tsp

Black pepper (optional)                             1.3 g                       1/3 tsp

Instant Yeast                                               6 g                          scant 2 tsp

Mashed potatoes                                       255 g                       1 ½ cups

Olive oil                                                        21 g                        1 ½ Tbsp

Fresh finely chopped Chives or Rosemary 10.5 g                 3 Tbsp   

Water (warm if potatoes are cold)               300 g                  1 ¼ cups

 

Cornmeal for dusting and olive oil for brushing on top.

1.       Remove Biga from the fridge and allow it come to room temperature. At least one hour. You can divide the biga into 12 small pieces to enhance warming time.

2.       Stir flour, salt, pepper, instant yeast in a mixing bowl or bowl of stand mixer.

3.       Add the Biga, potatoes, oil, chosen herb and water.

4.       Mix on low speed until incorporated. Add water or flour to adjust consistency of dough.

5.       Knead for 6-7 minutes with stand mixer or 7-9 by hand. Even if using a stand mixer after 6-7 minutes, put dough on lightly floured surface and knead a minute or two.

6.       Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl; roll the dough around the oiled bowl to ensure it is covered with a coating of oil. Cover with cling wrap or a large plastic sheet.

7.       In 20 minutes stretch the dough and fold over itself. Ensure all sides of the dough gets a stretch and fold. Repeat twice more 20 minutes apart for a total of 3 stretch and folds.

8.       Allow the dough to rise for 2 hours or double in size.

9.       Divide the dough into 3 equal parts and shape into boules and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. You could also divide further and make buns. One of the boules could make approximately 8 buns of 60 grams each.

10.    Proof the dough for 1-2 hours depending on if the dough is shaped into bread or buns.

11.   Preheat oven to 400F. Place the bread on the middle rack in the oven.

12.   Bake for 20 minutes and rotate your bread. Continue to bake another 20-25 minutes or until the internal temperature of the bread is 200F. Rolls should bake in about 30 minutes.

13.   Cool on a rack for at least 1-2 hours or 20 minutes for buns then slice and enjoy.

This photo is of the dough ready to be punched down and shaped. 

Pair your fresh potato bread with soups, chowders or pasta dishes. 

Do you know what is funny? I like the look of the word "pare" and want to write pare instead of pair. Pare means reducing down while pair means putting things together. Actually, perhaps we can pair the whole meal with a pear dessert. Bahahaha!

If you bake the rosemary potato bread let me know, especially if you make a pear delight for dessert!!